Lukiwski was speaking to a room of supporters winning the new seat. It was filmed by former Moose Jaw Times-Herald journalist Mickey Djuric, who has since resigned.

In the video, Lukiwski talks about the swell of Liberal support federally that ousted the Conservatives from power. He then goes on to discuss the provincial election coming up in April, and how important it is for Saskatchewan Party MLA for Moose Jaw Wakamow, Greg Lawrence, to be re-elected.

“This is a very important election provincially, we’ve got to get Greg back elected, he’s too important of an MLA to let go down to an NDP whore just because of a bad boundary,” he appears to say in the video.

When asked about the video on Thursday morning, Lawrence said he spoke to Lukiwski’s chief of staff, who told him “what Tom was trying to say, was ‘horde.’ “

“I’m a parliamentarian, so I don’t use language like that, and I don’t expect Tom would either,” Lawrence told the Regina Leader-Post.

Lawrence said he was surprised Lukiwski brought him up at all, because he only went to the celebration “to congratulate” the re-elected MP, “because all we’ve done is run into each other at a few events.”

Lawrence said he “can’t be responsible for what” Lukiwski says, adding “that’s not how I think.”

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He said he would “of course” be reaching out to NDP candidate Karen Purdy.

Purdy said she was “aghast” when she saw the video.

“I was disappointed in Mr. Lukiwski. I was disappointed that a Member of Parliament would say something like this,” Purdy told reporters in Moose Jaw.

Purdy said she has “no doubt” that Lukiwski said whore as opposed to horde.

Premier Brad Wall would not weigh in on whether or not Lukiwski should resign, but said, “If he said what is reported he said – and he meant it, he didn’t drop a D – … it’s unacceptable.”

Provincial NDP Leader Cam Broten said “whore” is “sure what it sounded like to me on the video.”

Broten called for Lukiwski’s resignation and wrote to federal Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose, asking she remove Lukiwski from caucus.

“These types of comments are so unacceptable, are so appalling, and are so disgusting,” Broten said Thursday.

“I know what I heard in that video.

“When we look at (Lukiwski’s) track record, when you have someone who, in the same context, surrounded by party faithful and supporters, has said some pretty outrageous things in that sort of party atmosphere … to me it doesn’t make sense that you’d be calling one person a horde. I don’t buy it. I simply don’t buy it.”

In a statement posted to the Conservative website, interim leader of the Conservative Party, Rona Ambrose, said she had “spoken with Tom Lukiwski in regards to the comments some are attributing to him which appeared on the internet earlier today.”

“I have seen the video in question and it is very difficult to determine what was said. Mr. Lukiwski strongly denies that he used the word in question. He has also reached out to the NDP candidate in order to assure her that no such insult was ever used or intended.

“Let me be clear. If derogatory language had been used, any member of Caucus would have already been removed.

“I have accepted Mr. Lukiwski’s explanation in regards to these comments.”

This is not the first time Lukiwski has found himself in hot water over comments caught on camera. In 2008, a video shot in 1991 surfaced that showed Lukiwski, then a political organizer for the Progressive Conservative Party, addressing an unknown camera operator saying, “There’s A’s and there’s B’s. The A’s are guys like me, the B’s are homosexual faggots with dirt on their fingernails that transmit diseases,” Lukiwski says in that video.

Warning: Some people may find the following content offensive

Uploaded on Apr 3, 2008, the following is Tom Lukiwski in a taped exchange in 1991 in which he made discriminatory and hateful comments towards homosexuals. Source: YouTube

Lukiwski, who was the MP for Regina-Lumsden-Lake Centre before boundary changes took effect this year, told reporters in 2008 that he was “truly, truly sorry.

“I’m ashamed for the comments. If I could take those comments back I would … They do not reflect the type of person that I am.”

Lukiwski later apologized in the House of Commons for the remark.

Djuric resigned from the Times-Herald on Thursday. In a blog post announcing her resignation, Djuric said she filmed the video a month ago and, after much discussion within the Times-Herald, it was decided on Nov. 12 that she should go ahead with a story about Lukiwski’s comments.

But on Nov. 17, Djuric writes in her blog, Times-Herald management reversed course and decided it would not pursue the story. Djuric says she and others in the newsroom were told not to release or discuss the video.

Craig Slater, managing editor of the Times-Herald, says the paper sought out Lukiwski to get his side of the story and the MP said he used the word “horde.”